A FURIOUS farmer, who warned last month of the dangers of burying diseased animals in a previously uninfected area, has been told his animals have foot-and-mouth.

Jeff Horn, who works Ivy Court Manor Farm, at Cowpen Bewley, Teesside, was told yesterday morning that his animals were infected.

Only a narrow access road separates his fields from the landfill site run by Warrington firm Zero Waste. Dumping began three weeks ago at the site, with daily convoys of lorries containing hundreds of slaughtered pigs and sheep - and the distraught farmer believes the carcasses are responsible for the outbreak on his land.

The 56-year-old, who farms with his wife, Anne, and son David, 29, watched as the slaughter of his 1,250 cattle and 500 sheep began yesterday.

He said: "My outbreak can only have come from the tip. There was not another outbreak for miles around until they dumped animals on my doorstep.

"The Government says it is under control, but that's a load of rubbish. The suffering of the animals is unbelievable. I am facing complete disaster and they are still carrying on the tipping."

However, Maff has denied the disease was caught from the commercial waste tip, which is about two miles from the community of Port Clarence.

A Maff spokesman said: "Animals which have been dumped at the site have all been slaughtered under the welfare disposal scheme, where livestock - which cannot be moved, but are living in deteriorating conditions - are killed.

"There is no danger to animals living near the site as all those buried were healthy."

The nearest case of the disease is at Old Stillington, near Stockton, about ten miles from Mr Horn's farm.

The spokesman said: "We are unsure how the disease came to be at Mr Horn's farm."

l Eight more cases were recorded by 5pm last night, taking the national total to 1,408. Three of the new cases came in the North-East, at the Cowpen Bewley site, at Middridge, near Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, and at Heddon-on-the-Wall in Northumberland.

Last night, residents of Cowpen Bewley spoke of their upset that their village had affected.

One who did not wish to be named but who was fighting back tears said: "It is terrible we all just hoped and prayed that it would not affect us.

Read more about foot-and-mouth here.